I keep thinking of the people I scared yesterday, knocking on their door to ask to borrow a shovel.

[fflo]

They had two shovels on their well-maintained Victorian porch, see, and a car in their driveway and a golden retriever in their window, and I had been plowed in on the street in front of their house.

The dog came to the door first, then the two girls and the Mom. They looked so worried, through the elegant etched glass behind the scrimmy curtain. No one knocks on doors on the Old West Side unless they are up to no good? Seeing that it was just some weird old lady didn't seem to comfort them, either, brothers and sisters. But they did eventually open the door enough to hear my request, albeit with all three humans clustered together behind the dog, a hand each on him/her.

I guess I was a street person, insofar as I was just somebody coming off the street, up to their door.

I'm always a little surprised when someone knocks on my door, too, though the main concern is whether I have enough clothes on not to have startled anyone looking through the window as they approached. Don't want to scare off your girl scout cookie purveyors, should some ever arrive. (Which reminds me, I need to get to one of their distribution locations soon.)

In that Michael Moore gun movie one of the more memorable bits, to me, is when he goes up to houses in Toronto to test the "Canadians don't lock their doors" theory. I think about that a lot too.

I'm glad I borrowed their shovel, though, and provided an overall no-need-for terror experience of a stranger off the street.

Later in the day I committed something of a faux pas, I believe, when I asked someone whether she had made her bag. It was quilty and homemade-looking and floral. Turned out it was a fancy designer quilty homemade-looking floral bag, from the same designer who made a clutchy mini-bag she had inside it, and showed me.

Yeah I'm not ashamed of that ignorance, as I'm sure you can tell. But that one was a surprise. And kinda funny, that a designer would go for a sort of frumpy look like that. Though I guess it did "say" "homey." In the older sense of "homey."

Comments

[wednes.livejournal.com]

I had the same reaction to Bowling for Columbine. If I glance over at my door and notice that it's unlocked, my first reaction is panic. Oh no! What if someone came in when I was in the other room?! What if I hadn't noticed and gone to sleep?!? Aaaaaaaahh!

At the same time, I don't live in a great part of town. Poverty and crime are kinda high and stuff has been stolen around here. I don't know if I'd actually shoot someone to keep them from stealing my laptop, but still, it's kinda scary. A friend of mine in Ypsi just had her back door kicked in while she was home.

I have to wonder how much of the mentality difference between us and Canada has to do with our society'd propensity toward blame. Everyone agrees it would be awful to be the victim of a crime, but in the US we have a way of making people feel like they brought the crime on themselves. We have a habit of pretending that crime (like poverty) is only something that happens when people aren't dilligent enough--rather than dealing with the scary truth that bad things can happen to anyone.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

Good point. OR dealing with (for instance) the inequity and poverty and abjectness from addition that contribute to crime.

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Well yeah, if you take desperation out of the equation, crime goes down. If you go a step further, and legitimate make it so hard work pays off, hopelessness will decrease and everybody will feel validated--thereby becoming more productive. But so many Americans would rather judge people than help them.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

p.s. "propensity toward blame" -- right on

[aabassplayer.livejournal.com]

I'm always a little surprised when someone knocks on my door, too, though the main concern is whether I have enough clothes on not to have startled anyone looking through the window as they approached. Don't want to scare off your girl scout cookie purveyors, should some ever arrive.

This is my thoughts on the matter precisely!